Haworth Tompkins have taken part in a virtual event with The Social Mobility Foundation about COVID and the Built Environment. Several studio members gave presentations on various aspects of our work over the past eighteen months. Nick Royce spoke about HT; our structure and how we use working groups to improve the way we function, design and respond to challenges.
Deeksha Audukoori, Diana Al-laham and Sian Bahia highlighted their differing routes to working at the practice, covering various subjects including school and university projects, applying for jobs and now working remotely. Alex Cox related the practice’s record on reacting to the climate emergency, alongside focusing on three of our in progress projects, and how they have been changed by the pandemic.
Nick and Alex then led two workshops looking at the ways in which we could improve the pandemic resilience of two of our built projects; Silchester and the Bridge Theatre. Students contributed ideas to a live mark-up of a set of drawings considering how the buildings were already suited to various pandemic safety criteria, such as the presence of open spaces and natural ventilation. Improvements were then suggested as to how the buildings could be future proofed, with space for working from home and social distancing measures in place.
Haworth Tompkins has been named AJ100 Practice of the Year 2022, for the second time in three years.
'Judges were fulsome in their praise of the practice, the overwhelming winner of this year’s AJ100 Practice of the Year accolade. ‘It’s a forward-thinking, genuine practice and a well-deserving winner – impressive on all fronts’.
Read the full story here.
Neptune Wharf, our project for Peabody and Hill in east London, has been shortlisted in the Urban Regeneration category at the 2022 Brick Awards. The major mixed-use neighbourhood is made up of 13 blocks within Fish Island Village, providing 501 homes and 56 flexible studios across a 2.23 hectare site. Using a combination of nine different brick types, the elevations reference historic and contemporary precedents found throughout Hackney Wick.
We are delighted to announce a number of promotions at Haworth Tompkins. Laura Gaskell and Hugo Braddick have been appointed as Associate Directors, and James Walker has been appointed as an Associate. Laura leads a number of housing and workspace projects including our plot in the first phase of the Birmingham Smithfield Development with Lend Lease, and Hugo is leading our Industrial portfolios including our major regeneration of Albert Island at the head of the Royal Albert Dock. James is an experienced and valuable member of our Housing Team and has played a key role on both our Kingswood project for Legal and General and our project for Quintain as part of the Wembley NW Lands Masterplan. We would like to thank them for their contributions to date and congratulate them on their promotions.
Gardner Close, our scheme for Pocket Living in east London, has won Best Use of Brownfield Land in Placemaking at this years' Planning Awards. Formerly an underutilised informal parking area, this site has been transformed into a community of 20 new homes on a highly constrained 0.1-hectare plot. All were discounted to market value and available only to local first-time buyers who lived or worked in the borough.
The Phase 2B Aylesbury Masterplan has been submitted for planning. We have been working on the project with lead architects and masterplanners Maccreanor Lavington, and alongside the other three plot architects Sergison Bates, East and Architecture Doing Place. The entire site, in Walworth, south London, is being redeveloped over 30 years, providing 3500 new homes in all, of which 50% will be affordable and prioritised for existing and former Aylesbury Estate residents. Our appointment, through the Notting Hill Genesis Framework, is to design Plot 4A of Phase 2B; over 200 of these homes, which are located alongside a new neighbourhood park, with play areas, landscaping, and spaces for community use.
Associate Director Ken Okonkwo has been selected as one of the Mayor’s Design Advocates (MDAs); independent, built environment experts helping to deliver a safe, fairer, greener and more prosperous city for all Londoners. The group of 42 MDAs have experience in both the public and private sector, include practitioners, academics, policymakers and those from community-led initiatives. The new cohort will be supporting the Good Growth by Design programme, working on the three main objectives of quality, recovery and representation. Click here for further details.
This year the London Festival of Architecture (LFA) is celebrating some of London’s most architecturally significant areas under the banner of LFA Destinations, including Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as it marks ten years since the 2012 Olympic Games. We will be discussing some of our work in the area, firstly on an architect-led walking tour of Fish Island Village on Saturday 11 June. Then on 21 June, Associate Director Ken Okonkwo will be on the panel for 'Ten years of Design Review in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park' - an event using two case studies, Here East and Fish Island Village. Click here for further information.
This week is National Mental Health Awareness Week, and our team of Mental Health First Aiders (MHFA) have organised a series of sessions concentrated on this year's theme, which is Loneliness. These include mindfulness meditation, office walks at lunchtime, social tea breaks, and a CPD from the Architects Benevolent Society on the support they can offer.